Nate squeezed her hand. He didn’t think so, but she could sure surprise him sometimes, and he loved it.

  After eating lunch, Blake stayed with Nicole while Nate walked Kayla back to the lodge. Before she went in through the staff door, he kissed her and gave her a hug. “I’ll call you as soon as I can so we can get together. And if the bride gives you any more grief, I’ll come over and give you some support.”

  She smiled. “Thanks. I know you’ll be busy, so whenever is fine with me. I’ve got to relieve Roxie so she can eat lunch and then get back to the wedding venue. They all are eating at the restaurant right now, and Landon’s in charge of making sure that goes smoothly.” She kissed Nate again, and he swore she didn’t want to go anywhere if it wasn’t with him.

  “Yeah.” He didn’t want to give her up either.

  Chapter 6

  Kayla and Nate didn’t have a chance to get together that night because Nate was tied up with cases all afternoon and worked late. Kayla worked late, too, to finalize the wedding and send the married couple off on their honeymoon—and Kayla hoped the bride didn’t give her husband as much grief as she’d given everyone else. Some of the guests had left, while others were hanging around to enjoy the resort. The cousin with the dogs left too.

  Kayla had stayed later than usual because Nate wasn’t able to do anything with her anyway, so she figured she’d put in the time so the others could go home and be with their pregnant mates. Well, all except for Roxie. She went home to do laundry.

  The next morning, Kayla made omelets for her and her sister. Their Saint Bernard and tabby cat were curled up in his dog bed together, having already eaten and taken a walk, and were getting in some more sleep before their busy day at the lodge.

  “You need to get laid,” Roxie said to Kayla, carrying their mugs of maple-black-tea espresso to the dining room table while Kayla served up their curried omelets with broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes. She was always testing out new omelet recipes, and this one looked like it was going to be a winner.

  “You’re always saying that.” Kayla sat down to enjoy breakfast before they ran as wolves, then headed over to the lodge to work. She often worked at home when she didn’t have a banquet venue to manage, but now with her brothers helping out their mates—who were both pregnant with twins—Kayla was heading into the office every day. After that, she needed…time to decompress. “I just want to make sure everything’s covered.” Getting laid hadn’t been a priority for her, though she would love to spend the night with Nate again. They hadn’t done that in some time.

  Roxie sighed. “We all know you. You do a great job on the promotions, and we’ll all pitch in to help you with whatever needs to be done. You’re not alone in this, but you’ve always, well, put relationships on a back burner since you called it quits with your ex-boyfriend.”

  “Our brothers have other pressing issues, and we’ve had to step up to take on more managerial problems with the lodge.”

  Roxie couldn’t argue with her about that. “If you don’t hurry up and mate Nate, I’m going to have to start dating him.”

  Kayla rolled her eyes. “You’re too outgoing for him.”

  “I could tone it down.”

  Kayla smiled. “No. You couldn’t. You are you, and I am—”

  “A total workaholic. So what’s the excuse for not asking him to have dinner with you last night? Or breakfast with you this morning? Or lunch this afternoon? Dinner tonight? You’re retreating from the dating world into your shell.”

  “We both worked late last night.” Kayla let out her breath. Her brothers and sister had been born the night of the twentieth of June, so they were Geminis. And Kayla had been born after midnight—so a Cancer. The hermit crab reference always seemed to come up at times like these. So what if Kayla liked her solitude after a day of being out in the public and having to deal with so much?

  “As a private investigator, Nate has always got cases he’s working on. The one he told us about is probably not the only one he has to prioritize. And his sister has been experiencing so much morning sickness of late, and yesterday, she was so worn out she didn’t make it back to work for about four hours. Nate has been taking up the slack in their PI agency. Our brothers’ are not the only ones affecting someone’s workload with their absenteeism. Nicole’s time off is affecting Nate’s workload too. And another thing, he never asked me about going to the cabin. I think he might have changed his mind because this case he’s working on needs to be resolved pronto,” Kayla continued.

  Roxie gave up trying to convince Kayla and finished off her omelet. “Now I really love that version of the omelet. The vegetables added color, fiber, and taste.”

  “Yeah, I really enjoyed it too.” Kayla was glad her sister wasn’t giving her any further grief about Nate. Her backup plan—if they didn’t go to the cabin—was to propose a mating to him on the Fourth of July. She wasn’t about to give up on that. By the Fourth, they were going to be mated wolves. Guaranteed, she thought. Unless he was holding back because he was unsure of things with her.

  “Well,” Roxie said, gathering up their plates to take into the kitchen, “our brothers took care of the ski lodge all on their own before we finished what we had to do in Vermont to move here. So now it’s our turn to run things.”

  “But they didn’t do any promo for the new ski lodge here. So it wasn’t like they handled all that needed to be done.” That was the thing: promotions took a whole lot of work, which was mainly why Kayla handled it almost full-time.

  “That’s true. But we have enough staff to cover the mundane stuff, and you need to take a break before you crash and burn.” Roxie cleaned up the kitchen while Kayla made them thermoses of hot maple-tea espresso to go. “He’ll ask you to go to the cabin. Just plan for it.”

  “As soon as we get all the stuff done for the Fourth of July—”

  “Then you’ll be getting stuff ready for the new ski season. And our brothers will be taking paternity leave to help out with the new babies when they’re born.”

  Which was the problem with each brother having a pair of twins at the same time. Though their brothers and their mates were glad they weren’t expecting quadruplets like the Wolff family had. Even Dr. Mitchell, the retired veterinarian, was returning to work full-time to take over Gabrielle’s workload for about four months after the babies were born. Probably sooner if she ended up on bed rest before the babies were due. Even though the wolves had an easier time of it than humans did, they could still run into trouble during a pregnancy. They were all eager to see the babies, and they’d all be helping out with them after they were born, serving in the capacity of a bunch of wolf nannies.

  Roxie set the frying pan on the drying pad. “If it were me, I’d be seeing him every night and every morning and—” Roxie paused. “Wait. You’re not holding out until I find a mate first so you can have the house for yourself, are you?”

  Kayla smiled. “Why is it that you aren’t dating anyone seriously? You wouldn’t be waiting for me to marry, then leave you the house, would you?”

  That was the agreement they’d all had, though nothing was written in stone. The idea was that whoever found a mate would move out and live with their mate. Blake and Nicole had built their own home a short distance from this one, and therefore it was also nice and close to the lodge. Landon had moved into the vet’s home behind Gabrielle’s clinic. So it was true that if Kayla mated Nate, the notion was that she’d be moving into his apartment and they’d want to build a home of their own on the land next to Nicole and Blake’s home. She was practically getting hives from the thought of having to deal with all that stress.

  Roxie laughed at the suggestion she was waiting on dating anyone. “I’m just casually dating some wolves. None seriously right now. Come on. We need to get in our wolf run before work.” But she was texting someone, and Kayla hoped it wasn’t Nate. Roxie was known to get involved if she felt she could help her siblings get together with the wolves she thought were right for them. It had worked in Blake’s and Landon’s cases, but it wouldn’t necessarily work in Kayla’s.

  Then the two of them went for their morning wolf run. Though Rosco always wanted to go with them, he couldn’t be depended on to stick with them. He’d run off, chasing the wildlife instead. They didn’t want the distraction when they ran as wolves.

  When they returned to the house, shifted, and dressed, ready for work, Roxie strapped Buttercup in her stroller to take her to the lodge. From the time they took her home from one of the hotel rooms as a kitten, she’d been going to the lodge every day with Rosco.

  “Are you going to try a leash on her again?” Kayla didn’t have the patience or fortitude to struggle with an uncooperative cat, but Buttercup had loved the stroller walks when they took Rosco for walks on his leash. Talk about Buttercup being a princess. When she was smaller, whoever took Rosco out would put Buttercup in their pocket. But she was too big for that now.

  “Yeah, sure, sometime. It would be fun, though she loves the stroller.”

  Kayla walked Rosco to the lodge on the walkway from their home to the two-story building while Roxie pushed the little pink stroller.

  They were halfway there when Roxie frowned at her and said, “About the birthday parties coming up—”

  “About the party… I think it’s high time we celebrate the birthdays together.” Kayla always had mixed feelings about it. Yeah, it was fun to have her own party separate from her brothers and sister, but on the other hand, it seemed kind of silly when it was just the next day and they had to have another one just for her. “I know I should have talked to you about this sooner since it’s in just a few days.”

  “No. Way. You’re special. Our poor mom didn’t think you would ever come. It took until the next day for you to arrive.”

  “Half an hour later—after midnight. Sheesh. It’s just that with all the babies coming and changes—”

  “No. I mean if you really want to do it, sure, but not because you’re afraid it will be too much for everyone else to handle. We love having the two birthday parties. If you want, we can celebrate mine with yours if you’re feeling lonely. The guys can have theirs the day before.” Roxie cast a glance in Kayla’s direction. “This better not be about Nate.”

  “This isn’t about Nate!”

  Roxie stared at her.

  Whoops! Kayla figured that’s where this conversation was headed…again. That she didn’t deserve a second chance of finding a mate so she was self-sabotaging herself with excuses why she wasn’t just asking him to mate her. She didn’t want to think in those terms. But maybe she was…a little bit. But she was also afraid he wouldn’t be able to handle the business of her shifting in the middle of the night during the full moon. What if they were in the middle of making love?

  “Fine! I’ll invite him over for dinner tonight. All right?” That was another of Kayla’s downfalls. She absolutely hated confrontations and would agree to practically anything to end them.

  “Yes! Perfect. I’ll visit with one of our brothers and his mate. Or if they’re busy, I might finagle a date with someone so you won’t think I’m waiting for you to mate Nate and leave the house to me.”

  Kayla smiled, then went in through the main entrance where guests took pictures of the two of them walking the dog and cat into the lodge. Everyone loved Rosco and Buttercup. But seeing the cat in the stroller was an extra treat.

  “Don’t forget to call him. I know you. You’ll get wrapped up in work and forget about calling until it’s too late,” Roxie said.

  Kayla released Rosco so he could greet everyone at the lodge—a group of kids out of school was eager to pet him—and then settle by the fireplace. Buttercup always stayed in their office after a swarm of kids had to see her too. Kayla pulled out her phone. “Calling him now.” She thought of texting him, but she felt she needed to speak with him so she could tell if he really was free to do this or if he was feeling obligated.

  “Okay, checking with the front desk to see if we’re having any issues,” Roxie said.

  “Okay, good.” Kayla called Nate while Buttercup settled on her fluffy pink cat bed next to the desk. “Hey, you might be busy with that case you were telling us about, but I thought you might like to have dinner at our place tonight. Roxie plans to go to one of our brothers’ homes for dinner.”

  “Are you sure you are okay with it?” Nate sounded like he really wasn’t certain she wanted to do this. Like she was feeling guilty about not getting together with him or she’d been coerced.

  She wanted to groan out loud. She wanted to just chill out with Roxie and their dog and cat. And do some more promo stuff tonight. But she knew in her heart of hearts she would have a great time with him too.

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” Kayla had to get out of her darn shell. Life was long for them, but she wanted to enjoy it. She could always find work to fill her time.

  “All right. I’d love to. What time?” Nate asked, sounding eager, which made her feel guilty all over again.

  “Seven? Would that give you enough time to do your work and come over?”

  “Sure. Look forward to it. Or you could come over here and have dinner with me. I’ll fix burgers on the grill.”

  “Uh, yeah, that would be nice.” She loved grilled burgers, and it would be nice to have someone else cook for her. She loved to cook, but this would be great too.

  “All right. See you at seven.”

  She smiled. Maybe Roxie was right. She felt really good about this, and it sounded like Nate wasn’t up to his eyebrows in work. Then Roxie poked her head into the office.

  “Good news. Nate and I are on for tonight at his place, so that means you can stay home and have dinner there if you prefer,” Kayla said before Roxie could ask.

  “What? Me? Stay home alone? No way. I’m going out for dinner. But great on the date. Um, I need you to go with me to open a guest safe that’s still locked. The guest who now has the room wanted to place something in the safe, and he can’t open it. So we need to do it and see if the previous guest left anything in there.”

  “Okay, so are we going to find a million dollars? A bag of uncut diamonds? A cache of passports? An incriminating photo?” Kayla asked, hoping it would be something exciting and mysterious as she grabbed the master key to get into the room safe.

  Roxie laughed. “Probably someone’s cell phone like the last time.”

  At the PI agency, Nate was so glad that Kayla was coming over for dinner. He’d been trying to let her deal with all the issues she’d had, what with the summer promotional business, banquet managerial tasks, and having to take on more managerial duties while her brothers were out of the office, but also just to have time to decompress after work. And he’d been busy with Nicole being out of the office so much too.

  He’d even fantasized about Kayla and him being together in a place of their own, grilling burgers, talking over their days. But he hadn’t wanted her to feel pressured about having to see him if she was feeling too overwhelmed about things. No matter what happened on the missing guy case, he planned to ask her tonight to go with him to the cabin after her siblings’ birthday party to make it an extra special weeklong birthday celebration for her.

  All settled down to work, he was surprised when Nicole showed up at the agency early. “I thought you weren’t coming in until this afternoon. Are you feeling all right?”

  “Oh, yes, just great. Just some morning sickness earlier. Blake went into the lodge to help out, and I’m here to work on pending PI cases.”

  “Okay, good. I haven’t learned anything new on the case with Phil. His parents haven’t heard from him. I keep in touch all the time, just in case. And I let them know where we’re at on this.”

  “At least they know we’re spending a lot of time on it.” She began looking at the cases that were stacking up. “Do you want to have dinner with us tonight?” Nicole asked.

  Nate smiled. “I have a dinner date with Kayla tonight.”

  “Oh, wow, yes! I’m so glad you asked her out.”

  “She called me and wanted to have a dinner date.”

  “Oh,” Nicole said, smiling. “Even better. We’ll see if Roxie wants to have dinner with us then. So where are you taking Kayla?”

  “I’m grilling burgers. I figured she’d like that best. She’s really a homebody, you know, and after working at the lodge all day, she’ll want some time to chill.”

  “Okay, perfect. Roxie just told me that Kayla and her boyfriend back in Vermont called it quits when he was inebriated and totaled his car when they were together. Did Kayla tell you about that?”

  “Roxie did. She said Kayla and her boyfriend were out celebrating her birthday.”

  “Right. Well, Roxie said Kayla gets kind of upset during that time. We’re supposed to go to her birthday party the day after the other siblings’ surprise party. You know theirs are in just a couple of days. But I wanted to warn you she might be less than…cheerful for her own birthday party.”

  “I believe that’s why Roxie told me, worried I’d be offended or something.” He’d noticed how stressed Kayla was on other occasions when they’d gotten together for meals and she seemed lost in her thoughts, worried about work, which was why he figured she hadn’t really needed his company at the time. He was glad she wanted to be with him tonight.

  “Did you ask her about going with you to the cabin?”

  “I will tonight.”

  Nicole let out her breath in a frustrated sigh. “You are procrastinating, Brother. If she doesn’t want to go because she’s worried about work commitments, at least you’ll know right up front. I know you’re worried she’ll say no and you’re putting off asking her. If she can’t make it, then Blake and I can go with you to the cabin to lift your spirits. So what are we working on?” Nicole asked, setting the other cases aside.

  No way did he want to be at the cabin with his sister and her mate. They could take the cabin over instead if they wanted. Besides, someone needed to take care of the cases they were working on.